11.00-15.00

5 Cattle Egrets and a single Grey Heron were following the cattle around. 2 of the egrets were seen to catch frogs.

Also seen here today: 2 Green Sandpipers, 2 Dunlin (+ a flock of around 50 flew low across the reserve), 2 Snipe, 1 Peregrine, 5 Buzzards and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

1 female Marsh Harrier was seen hunting the nearby salt marsh. Several skeins of Pink Footed Geese passed over the reserve and out onto the estuary.

11.30-6pm a good day in the rain, but i had my brolley with me.

3 little stint
2 curlew sandpiper
2 greenshank
5 ruff
60+ black-tailed godwit
at one point I counted 103 snipe but there was still a good amount of them all around.
15+ dunlin
1 cattle egret
1 great white egret
6 black swan
lots of teal, pintail, shoveler & lapwings around
1 marsh harrier
1 peregrine falcon
2 sparrowhawk
1 raven
200+ pink footed goose
1 cettis warbler, another 2 heard
3 chiffchaff
2 great spotted woodpecker
3 treecreeper
3 goldcrest
few swallow & house martin
plus all usuals around

from the viewpoint... 2 great white egret, 1 merlin.

Amazed to see 6 Black Swans today at Burton RSPB .... not sure if I'm pleased or not.

Little Stint and Cattle Egret notables 

I just noticed that there hadn't been any mention previously of the Cattle Egret at Burton Mere Wetlands, and I just mentioned it in passing, sorry. I realise not everyone is on an information service so here's an update:

The bird is present again today, viewed from the Reception building. It is not the same bird as the one at Marshside RSPB as both were present at their respective sites yesterday! The bird has been present since the 13th September and as I say is still present so well worth a look 

 

-- Edited by Doc Brewster on Wednesday 21st of September 2016 10:47:48 AM

09.30-14.00

1 young female Sparrowhawk had caught a Woodpigeon on the entrance track and was very unhappy when passing cars drove her off her kill.

Also on the reserve : 12 Spoonbills, 6 Curlew Sandpipers, 1 Little Stint, 2 Greenshanks,1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Green Sandpiper, 4 Ruff, 4 Black Tailed Godwits,

5 Snipe, 1 female Marsh Harrier, 1 Kestrel, 1 Barnacle Goose, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and 1 male Blackcap.

A steady stream of Chiffchaffs and a few Willow Warblers were moving through the bushes by the railway and edging South.

Make that 12 species - I forgot the 4 Greenshank and 10 plus Ruff. NB post edited function has gone all weird - full of alien characters

-- Edited by Tim Wilcox on Thursday 8th of September 2016 03:11:56 PM

12 Spoonbills still present. 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 5 Greenshank and a Little Stint were also present today.

-- Edited by Craig Higson on Saturday 3rd of September 2016 05:58:35 PM

With an afternoon off & the weather being dull I decided to pop to BMW to drop off some stuff I'd promised them and say hi to folk. Whilst there I had a short time to bird too.

Joined a few mates in the 'bunker' hide and we saw the juvenile Spotted Crake a few times, once at length and probably 3 Water Rails, all youngsters of varying ages. Once annual both at Marbury No.1 Tank (now Haydn's Pool) and Inner Marsh Farm (Spotted Crake that is) it is nice to see them breeding locally too. We all discussed just how many Cheshire sites we had seen Spotted Crake at in the past and between us it was between 6 and 8 locations!

The 9 Spoonbills were present but had flown up into the heronry trees when a Peregrine flew through, allopreening was again taking place. A female Marsh Harrier was seen. A handful of Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwits were on the lagoons. A Green Sandpiper and a Common Sandpiper were on the very small pool by the main centre. Little Egrets were everywhere, the biggest number on the lagoon past Marsh Covert Hide where there were several young Grey Herons too. Finally a Spotted Flycatcher was seen near the centre.

A pleasant short stroll as usual here.

Rob Creek wrote:

---

Highlights...
- Spotted Crake 2, ad+juv seen quite a few times, we were happy with the juvenile so the other one we saw had to be the adult.

---

Just to be clear, I'm not claiming to have seen an adult Spotted Crake yesterday, I am only recording the juvenile bird as a definite ID. I think Rob's scope goes to x60 zoom so he sometimes gets better views than my x50 when we are watching distant birds.

Steve Burke, Rob Creek and myself had a top day here yesterday (Sunday 31st July) from about 9am till 7pm or so, primarily to look at the Spotted Crake. In morning light from the bunker screen we had some great views of the juvenile bird. We also saw 3 different juvenile Water Rails, at different ages. One looked recently hatched and downy, another was older but still growing, with a short bill and the potential to confuse as a result, and a third was a similar sandy-brown base colour to the Crake, and needed some separating when they showed together. We also had a tantalizing couple of views of a darker bird that looked a possible for adult Crake, but we never nailed it. Still, ageing the bird we did see properly was a step forward from the week before. In the evening we had more views of it tussling with a juvenile Water Rail. I think we ended up seeing at least 4 Water Rails through the day, not one of which was an adult. This was excellent in itself. The Crake was rather attractive when it stood still, with a lovely pattern of white spots and marks on its flanks and chest. A well-named species in fairness...

I got 68 species on my day list, as we noted a brilliant variety of other birds wandering around. There were 9 Spoonbills present, which was awesome, especially when a couple preened each other for a few minutes. Steve picked out a Great White Egret from Burton Point, and probably best of all in some ways, we got onto some Spotted Flycatchers around the trees by the car park, and spent a superb hour or so watching various small birds feeding. There were at least 4 Spotted Flycatchers, and with them some busy Treecreepers, Nuthatch, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Chaffinch, Blackcap and Blue Tits. We also saw a family party of Reed Warblers really well in the bushes along that path round to the far part of the reserve. Also 2 Marsh Harriers, the slightly scruffy immature male bird (I think) that we saw the week before and then a bigger clean juvenile later on.

A great advert for the reserve all in all

The Spotted Crake eventually showed well bathing in a small patch of water to the right of a water cress bed. Can only just tell what it is from distant and poor phone-scoping.
Also
9 Spoonbills
c600 Black-tailed Godwits
50 Knot
2 Ruff
Common Sandpiper
2 Black Swans
Sparrowhawk
2 Marsh Harriers

Cheers, John

27/07/16 1200 - 1500;
Spotted Crake (distant but showing well circa 1430, interacting with juvenile Water Rail as mentioned by Roger below).
Little Egret (at least 50)
Spotted Redshank = 2
Spoonbill = 4
Avocet = 1
Green Sandpiper = 1
Common Sandpiper = 2
Ruff = 1
Little Ringed Plover = 1
Black-tailed Godwit = >50
Mediterranean Gull = 1 (juv)
Sedge Warbler (6), Blackcap (1), Chiffchaff (3), Willow Warbler (1), Common Whitethroat (5)
Buzzard (1), Kestrel (1)
Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Nuthatch
Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Grey Heron
Mallard, Teal, Shoveler, Tufted Duck
Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull.

I saw on Birdguides that one of the Spotted Crakes had been showing mid morning today, so I nipped across for a look. After a wait of around one hour a bird was seen at the back of the scrape, behind the island, preening for a couple of minutes before running to its left and then disappearing into the vegetation behind. An adult and a juvenile have been seen and whilst it was difficult to definitely say which my bird was due to the distance and light conditions etc, I think it was the juvenile.

Five of the Spoonbill flew in for twenty minutes or so (four later refound from IMF hide) and in addition to the usuals, also around were Dunlin, Green Sandpiper, Redshank, Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Avocet and Black tailed Godwit.

Spoonbill 4
Little Egret 12+
Grey Heron 3
Common Sandpiper 1
Green Sandpiper 1
Ruff 3males.
Avocet 1
Black-tailed Godwits
Lapwings
Peregrine 1
Buzzard 1
Water Rail 1 heard.

Lucky i managed to get 9 days of work experience with the warden.
4 spoonbills in the trees and later 4 seen flying towards the marsh from burton mere
1 common sandpiper
1 dunlin
100+ black-tailed godwits
several redshanks
lots of avocets about
2 buzzard
lots of little egrets
16 sedge warblers
7 reed warbler
9 whitethroats
1 green woodpecker from burton point twice
2 skylark
other wildlife
4 6 spotted burnet moths
1 wood carpet moth
2 small magpies
hemlock and bittersweet nightshade

Of interest to forum members I hope, the bird news services are reporting a White-winged Black Tern at Burton Mere Wetlands at 3.30pm 

5 spoonbill up to now today

12.45-8pm

3 spoonbill were sleeping in front of reception hide when I first arrived, later on about 5pm I looked over from the field near the viewing points & there was 6 in front off reception hide, by the time I got back there they had gone.
1 spotted flycatcher along woodland trail
1 hobby flew over & spread panic amongst the black headed gulls, avocets & lapwings.
1 cettis warbler seen, more heard around
avocets seem to have done well with lots of chicks around, several of them well grown, I counted 68 in front of reception hide.
plenty of little egrets around
reed warblers, sedge warblers, whitethroats, blackcaps & chiffchaffs
2 buzzard
120+ black tailed godwit
several redshank
pair of nuthatch with 3 juveniles
1 treecreeper
2 great spotted woodpecker
plus the usuals

Doc Brewster wrote:

---

sid ashton wrote:

---

Lovely morning on the Wirral.  The 4 Spoonbills were still present in the same tree near Marsh Covert hide - never seen this species in a tree previously!!

The Spotted Flycatchers were still busy in the car park and there was lots of Warbler activity taking place. A female Marsh Harrier was around for a while and put the big flock of Black-tailed Godwits in the air when it first appeared.

This was my first visit to the reserve since July last year - mustn't leave it so long next time .

6.27pm edit:- Just had a message to say there are now 5 Spoonbills feeding on the main scrape.

-- Edited by sid ashton on Sunday 29th of May 2016 06:29:00 PM

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As a tree nesting species the only time I have seen them in trees was at the small breeding colony of them at Holkham NNR a few years ago, and that was in a Grey Heron & Little Egret colony. Let's hope that them hanging around in trees is a sign of them breeding in the NW 

---

I was there last night and I know that where they were was the little egret colony but when I arrived there were only 2 left on the scrape and the other 4 had apparently been seen heading off high. The last 2 left a well so unles they just flew onto the Dee then it looks like they've left for good.

I only saw 4 but they were asleep most of the time.

Grasshopper Warbler showing brilliantly by the boardwalk.

4 spoonbills showing well in trees, and a male garganey from inner marsh hide.

Today between 15:00-17:30

4 spoonbill, showing well from the bottom of the path leading up to the marsh covert hide
2 spotted flycatcher in car park
1 garden warbler
2 reed warbler
1 whitethroat
1 Cetti's warbler (heard only)
Lots of avocet chicks with their parents
1 sparrowhawk with prey, getting mobbed by black headed gulls
3 chiffchaffs
5 buzzard
4 great spotted woodpecker

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Saturday 28th of May 2016 07:31:32 PM

It was me that reported their departure at 1.20pm Mark. One of the birds was billing the other on the wing so possible pairing activity. Someone said there were '5' around and this could be as our birds were in a tight group and it would be odd if just one split off to Decca Pools when you caught up with it

-- Edited by Tim Wilcox on Wednesday 25th of May 2016 10:07:17 PM

After hearing about 4 Spoonbills at BMW Tim Wilcox and I decided to take a punt, especially as the weather on the Wirral was supposed to be
drier than GM. We struck lucky: Tim spotted the birds in the air over the Little Egret's nesting area, they then circled over us and headed over
towards Decca Pools.
Other highlights were lots of Avocet chicks and Spotted Flycatchers nest building above the car park.